For the past few days I've been throwing together a website for unofficial VU recordings, as maybe a companion to Oliver's wonderful site, and I'd like some people who know a lot about these recordings to:
a) Help me determine if the site would be a valuable resource for people.
and
b) Help me out with some details pertaining to recordings I don't have access to.

I'm basically hoping to make a resource for people that helps keep track of what's out there.
If anyone knows a lot about bootlegs and would like to help out, please let me know and I can show you want I've got so far. Thanks!

Hi Adam
Sounds interesting, theres ALOT of knowledge and info here and access to some of the top VU boffins around and we're generally a friendly bunch but I think you need to elaborate abit more on your idea to get some people here on board.

Can you put some mock ups design wise on the forum? Can you say why it will be different to the boot list on the VU site..
Give us bit more of a mission statement so to speak as at the moment i'm not entirely sure what angle you are going to take on this subject. I'm quite willing to discuss further via PM

Thanks for the reply, bleach. The main difference is that where Oliver's site lists each bootleg followed by a list of songs, mine would list each song (For example: After Hours - Live - End of Cole Ave, Dallas, Texas - 1969 10 18) followed by the bootleg CDs it can be found on. I'm using XML and XSL so there would be countless ways to easily manipulate the data (sort by title, sort by date, almost anything as long as it would be helpful) and if any mistakes are caught they could quickly be fixed. I'm pretty close to having all the songs/recordings compiled into my XML file (I think so far there are 326 songs!), and I'm hoping that when I'm finished I'll be able to create an algorithm which will determine, for example, the bare minimum of bootlegs one would have to gather up to obtain everything. I'm also hoping that (and this is one thing I'll need help with) I'll be able to list which versions of a recording are of the highest quality, and then run this list through the above mentioned algorithm as well.

I haven't gotten into the graphics or design of the site yet, as I'd like to know if there'd be enough interest to go through with it. So far I only have a skeleton of what's to come available to anyone who is willing to give some constructive feedback.

That's about all I can think of for now. Sorry I was so cryptic the first time around!

This sounds like a great idea to me, especially the part about identifying the best sources. I was planning to post something here someday about my views on the best sources available, having spent many hours identifying them, but I can give you my list instead if it helps. Its sometimes pretty subjective as to which source actually is better quality.

as someone who is certainly not "one of the top VU boffins around" but rather just someone whose love for the music gets thoroughly baffled by all of the duplication and recombination that's been done to very few actual original sources, this sounds great to me. (It doesn't help that so many of the gigs are from the same handful of venues, but different dates...) Stunning that there are so many songs!

one very subjective suggestion--could the reunion tour be compiled separately from the vintage material? I have no interest in the '93 shows.

Thanks for the input. I'm planning on making it possible for the user to list the songs in a few different ways, and listing them into groups (Pre Vu, Bataclan, Bedroom Tape, etc.) is something I've already started on. I currently don't have any of the '93 shows in the database, but it will be possible to separate them out when I do.

I was amazed at the number of songs too! Of the 326 I mentioned before, 272 are actual, pure VU songs. (Maybe something like 268 if you exclude things like "Intro" or "Radio ad".) But again, the list is still incomplete, so who knows how many there'll be?

This sounds/looks like a great service and website. Has anyone got a simple list of all the tapes that are known to exist - somewhat like the old VUAS list, but without all of the rumours and innacuracies. I'm interested not only in live shows, but also the rehearsals and demos and outtakes.

Of course if you have anything not on here please let me know !!!
Cheers
Dave

Wow!! I have all the VU bootlegs from Olivers site, cd's, lp's, compilations, & box sets. Plus many trade items but nowhere as many as you. I am nowhere as coordinated either; as in I don't have a list of everything own! I'd be interested in completing some missing items but only in legal ways
If I can answer any questions from what I own, let me know. Peace my friend